Where There's a Will...August F. Buschick Set His Hand 14 Dec 1883

I was excited when I found my great grandfather's will and two other documents pertaining to his death on Ancestry.com. Yet, when I started reading, the hope of getting a lot of information from the will didn't come. Usually there are names and relationships, but August Ferdinand Buschick didn't mention siblings or children except for his daughter from his first marriage, Catherine W. Norris. She was the only one left of three children born to August and Catherine his first wife. He mentioned his current wife, (my great grandmother) Susan A., but didn't mention any one I didn't know about. Bummer...

August F. Buschick

I August F. Buschick of the City of Chicago, in the County of Cook and State of Illinois, aged fifty eight years and being of sound mind and memory do hereby make, publish and declare this to be my last Will and Testament hereby revoking any and all wills by me heretofore made.~

First: It is my wish that my Executrix hereinafter named shall pay my debts and funeral expenses as soon after my decease as conveniently maybe. 

Second: After the payment of said debts and funeral expenses I give, devise and bequeath to my daughter Catherine W. Norris the sum of four thousand dollars in cash to be paid out of my estate by my executrix as soon after my decease as conveniently can be.~ 

Third: Subject to the fore going provisions I hereby give, devise and bequeath to my wife Susan A. Buschick all my property real personal and mixed of whatever name and nature and wheresoever situate including all partnership interests, her heirs, executors, administrators and assigns Forever.~ 

Fourth: I hereby nominate and appoint my wife Susan A. Buschick Sole Executrix of this my last Will and Testament and it is my wish and I hereby direct that she be allowed to administer my estate without giving Bond or Surety of any kind. 

In testimony where of I have herewith set my hand and seal this fourteenth day of December A.D. 1883August F. Buschick {seal}

August signed his will on the 14th of December and died on the 15th of Pleuro-Pneumonia. By the 21st, the Letters of Testamentary were filled out and signed. This is a document granted by the court which simply states Susan as the legal executor/executrix and she has the ability and responsibility to act as such.

On the same day two more documents were filled out and signed: The Executor's Oath which makes sure Susan will carry out the provisions of the will as specified.

The other is Executor's Bond which is a specific type of probate/fiduciary bond that ensures estates are handled appropriately after individuals pass away. In the "fourth" point of the will, August specifically requests that his wife "be allowed to administer my estate without giving Bond or Surety of any kind." But here is one. Could that just be a formality? I have no idea. On this bond, there is a "penal sum" of $16,000 which is the maximum amount the surety will be require to pay in the event of any default by Susan. At first I thought it was the amount of money left to Susan, but I had to look it up to find out what it really meant.

It is interesting on this Bond, Susan's residence is shown: 394 Orchard Street which today would be 2217 N. Orchard St. which is on the first block north of Oz Park. There is a three-story apartment building numbered 2215 where I think the house should have been. Since there is no number 2217 there must have been some more changes made since 1909 when the city's house numbers were renumbered. This residence isn't too far from an earlier residence of 1870 when they lived near Hurlbut (now Cleveland Ave.) and Lincoln Ave. located east of Oz Park. Funny thing...a few years ago, I was on a bus touring the highlights of the Chicago Fire of 1871, and towards the end of the tour our bus went through this neighborhood where both residences were but I didn't know my Buschicks lived in the area until recently when I started my research on them.

[Google maps image]

There may be other papers/documents, but I haven't found any so far. If I do, that will be on another post.

August and Susan had eight children between 1864 (when they got married) and 1883 when August died. Of those eight, at the time of his death, my grandfather, Edwin Luther, (age 18) and his sister Jennie Maude (age 12) were left, so why didn't he mention them?  

I was hoping great grandfather would have named his siblings possibly just as token receivers in his will, but to my dismay he did not. One sibling I know of is Gustavus Emil who was his partner in the steam boiler business. Gustav lived until 1902. There is a possibility of at least three more, but only two I'm aware of were also alive at the time of August's death, but none were mentioned in his will. That makes it hard to be sure they are part of the family.

Maybe the other two siblings had enough money they didn't need to be named. Maybe there wasn't really that much money left since August had gone through bankruptcy in 1875 and he was still recovering. Who knows.

At this time, I'm in the process of researching this Buschick family and have some clues, but the trail is starting to go cool. I won't name any names because I don't want anyone to put them on their family tree as if they were proved. All I can say is one of them seems to be on the same immigration index card. Curious? Me, too. I'll save it all for another blog post when I am more sure of my puzzle pieces.